First of all, I wanted to thank RevScene as a whole and wstce92 personally for all the help! I did not know about this community before someone on Reddit recommended I post here.
Second, there have been quite a few "should've walked away" type posts. I expected posts like that to show up in a thread like this. Typically I ignore those, but I think I should answer all of them at once here:
Yes. It was stupid of me to stick around after the first insult was made by the group of 6. I did have a few drinks at the club, but thanks to prohibitive drink prices at the Lamplighter, I was not drunk at all. I know I should've left the scene after turning around and seeing that there were 6 guys, mostly drunk. But to my slightly intoxicated mind back then, staying and defending my position somehow made sense. I also think that being in a very public area (literally, people all around us) made it feel safer.
But personal advice is not why I posted this thread. I think having to live with my injuries for the rest of my life is more than enough of a lesson for me. I posted this thread with hope of identifying the suspect, which I believe this community has done an amazing job of.
The only reason I pulled out my phone was because they started filming. Having watched dozens of "street prank" videos on YouTube, I thought they would be less inclined to pull one on me if I had all of their faces. Besides, punching someone in the face while being filmed in a VERY public place would be pretty heavy evidence and great identification aid in the case of assault. The identification of the guy made by this community stands to confirm that. They did not take my phone because an assault (especially a suckerpunch like that) is done in the heat of the moment, while testosterone and adrenaline are still pumping through the veins. Robbery, on the other hand, requires more thought and carries a completely different jail sentence, especially when combined with assault. In other words, they were stupid enough to assault me but not stupid enough to rob me.
The reason I removed the audio from the clip on YouTube is to stay anonymous, not because it captured some "provoking" remarks on my side. The VPD, of course, has the complete video with audio. To compensate, I have added subtitles to the video (click the CC icon), that detail how our conversation went.
Finally, to address all the "gangsta-talkers" on this thread: yo say I deserved this?? if the guy had any balls, he would atleast give me some indication he wanted to fight (and no,, acting tough is not an indication.. guys do it all the time when chix are around). at the very least, he shoulda gave me some time to see the punch coming. not punch me WHILE i was looking into the phone and then run away like a pussy. it's like kicking a guy in the fucking head while he's sleeping/. grow some fucking balls! i'm a peaceful guy but can stand my ground alright, especially when it's a matter of self defense. had this been a fair fight, Iwould not be as pissed off and this thread would never exist.
To translate into normal English: I believe every person has some basic rights, especially rights to their personal mental and physical space. Whenever those rights are challenged, the person is free to defend them to the maximum legal extent. If someone harasses you verbally, tell them why you think otherwise. If someone punches you, punch them back. I tend to agree with
this guy's philisophy:
Quote:
There’s legitimately bad people in the world, barely above animals, and strength is the only thing they respect.
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Had I been given a chance to defend myself in this situation, and had this guy won in a fair one-on-one fight, I would not be enlisting the help of this forum to identify him. I want to identify this guy to make a public example out of him. I want him to be ashamed of harassing and then punching an unprepared, unarmed guy while 5 of his buddies were watching behind him. There is nothing to be proud of in this situation, even by "street" standards.
Now, about the update. The VPD has been extremely slow in responding to all of my communications with them. The way they deal with cases like mine is they give you the assigned officer's badge number, email address and voicemail number. You can email, call and leave all the voice mail you want and hope the officer gets back to you someday. There is no way to speak to the assigned officer directly unless they call you back.
My assigned officer took two days to reply to me after I submitted the suspect's photo, name and Facebook page. During this time, the suspect deleted his Facebook profile (although I do have a screenshot of it), further confirming that RevScene has got the correct person.
The photo that wstce92 posted (the guy with the frying pan) as well as the information that he sent over email allowed me to identify the suspect as Grant Davidson. Following further search online I have been able to find another photo of him which, in my opinion, is a 99% match with the suspect. I will release the photo and more details as soon as the police confirm they got the guy.
The police officer replied to me recently, saying that they will investigate if Grant is indeed the suspect in my assault. I have not heard back about the progress of their investigation yet.
PS: To be updated (really)!
